Sections

Ottawa Redblacks

Redblacks have an eye on future, GM breaks down team's CFL Draft picks

Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins has a good feeling about first-round draft pick Alex Fontana (top). “I like the fact he’s always able to stay on his feet. He just has a knack for being able to finish his blocks,” he said. (Supplied photo)

Tim Baines, Postmedia

Published: May 4, 2019 - 9:27 AM

While it would be a bonus if any of the seven players the Ottawa Redblacks snagged in Thursday night’s CFL Draft could make immediate contributions, GM Marcel Desjardins and his football operations staffers were more thinking about the future.

With a draft class that included first-rounder (seventh overall) Alex Fontana, a “scrappy” centre body type out of the University of Kansas, the Redblacks believe they may have hit some home runs. But it may be more a wait and see thing with a few of the players drafted having two more years of college eligibility remaining.

“The best thing about this draft – we don’t need any of these players to come in and play for us right away,” said Desjardins Friday. “If it plays out that way, that’s great. But that’s not what we need. The eligibility thing and being able to send guys back (to school) was very important.

“We tried to ensure we had guys with eligibility remaining so if for some reason we felt they needed to go back, that was an option as opposed to having to release them and they end up somewhere else.”

Here’s a look at the newest Redblacks, with comments from Desjardins about each player (the Redblacks didn’t have a second-round selection, dealing it to Montreal for linebacker Chris Ackie last season).

ROUND 1 (seventh overall) ALEX FONTANA, OL, Kansas: “In the first round, you’re kind of waiting and being patient. There were three or four guys we really liked. We got a guy we think can contribute right away if we need him to. I like the fact he’s always able to stay on his feet. He just has a knack for being able to finish his blocks – even if he’s not in the best position to do it, he still finds a way. That’s what I mean when I say he’s scrappy, tenacious, that type of thing. He’s more of a centre. That would be the primary position. Can he play guard? Maybe, but that wouldn’t be the preference. I would say he’s one of the more ready O lineman in this year’s draft. He’s in mini-camp with Kansas City so we’ll just wait and see what happens with that. He wants to play football, that’s what he is. He bounced around to try and put himself in the best situation to have success and it’s worked out for him.”

ROUND 3 (27th overall): GABRIEL POLAN, RB, Sherbrooke: “Sherbrooke used him as a running back, we see him as the same as we do with our other Sherbrooke fullbacks (Jean-Christophe Beaulieu and Anthony Gosselin). He’s an athletic H-back, fullback type who can get into space and catch the ball if need be and have the physicality to block in the box. With all those guys, it’s special teams value. He’s got size, he runs pretty well and he’s got kind of a knack on special teams for being in the right place.”

ROUND 4 (36th overall) THOMAS GRANT, DL, Acadia: “He’s a massive man, almost 6-foot-6 and 290 lbs. He’s an interior D lineman who’s very athletic for his size. He’s very strong and stout. He’s still a bit raw, he still needs to learn the position, he needs to learn to keep his pad level down. He’s a guy who can potentially go back to school after camp. Potentially, he could become an O lineman as well if the D line thing doesn’t work out.”

ROUND 5 (45th overall) WESLEY LEWIS, WR Houston Baptist: “He’s another big boy at 6-foot-5, 218 lbs. He runs real well. He knows to use his body to his advantage. He doesn’t need to dominate and be physical with DBs because he can just kind of impose himself on them by just getting in the way. He catches the ball pretty well. There’s a lot to like about him. It’s funny, he was actually at one of our tryout camps in Houston last year – as an American. We didn’t know he qualified as a Canadian. Our guys liked him so he was on our ready list should we have needed a guy like that to come in. In the interim, he gained national status. A guy that size, you can’t pass up that size, speed and athleticism.”

ROUND 6 (54th overall) CHRIS LARSEN and ROUND 7 (63d overall) SAMSON ABBOTT (both DL, Manitoba): “They’re very similar. Larsen’s a bit bigger. They’re both athletic. Larsen plays a bit more on defence. Abbott doesn’t play a ton on defence, but he is a very, very good special teams player at that level. He’s probably the most ready guy from a special teams perspective to come in and play. He’s about 6-foot-4, 240 – Nigel Romick, that’s the type of guy he is. As we all know, those guys are crucial to have on your team for special teams ability. The biggest thing with those two guys is they have two years of eligibility left. That’s the same with Thomas Grant and Polan.”

ROUND 8 (72nd overall) CLEMENT LEBREUX, DL, Laval: “He’s a big boy – 6-foot-3 1/2, 300 lbs. He’s strong and stout. This is a future pick, similar to Kevin Malcolm a couple of years ago. Kevin had torn his ACL, Clement tore his ACL at the regional combine in Montreal. He’s a guy we’ll wait on. He’ll rehab and get better. I don’t think he’ll be ready this season, he hasn’t had his surgery yet. But next year, he’ll be a full go coming into camp.”

LOCALS FEEL THE DRAFT: There were plenty of Ottawa-area connections during the CFL Draft, with the Toronto Argos playing a heavy hand in the process. First to go – to the Argos – was UBC quarterback Michael O’Connor, taken with the first pick of the third round (20th overall). O’Connor played for the Orleans Bengals, then Ashbury College, before beginning a U.S. journey that saw him play at Penn State for a season before returning to Canada, at UBC.

“I love to play football,” O’Connor said during the CFL Combine in March. “No question, this is what I’m born to do. I know I can play at the next level.”

Some mock drafts had Laurier receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr., a terrific route runner who’s from Ottawa, going in the first round, but he slid to the 23rd pick and was grabbed by the Argos. Ottawa U DB Jamie Harry went to Toronto with the 38th pick. With the 56th pick, Toronto took Carleton WR Phil Iloki. Ottawa U DB Cody Cranston went 66th to Montreal, where he will be in training camp with his brother Ty. Among the local notables who went undrafted: Carleton DB Jay Dearborn and OL Daniel Omara and Ottawa U receiver Kalem Beaver.